Last update: Feb 1 1996

A History of Ships Named Enterprise

Compiled by David Wells

"Enterprise" - Boldness, energy, and invention in practical affairs

(Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, 1963)

Organization:

This guide is organized chronologically, by launch dates where available.

 

0) Early Enterprises

The name Enterprise was used in Britain's Royal Navy as early as 1705, and many RN ships have borne that name, however I only have information on a few of the later ones. The first Enterprise that I have good information of is an American sloop of war.

1) 1775-1777 Sloop of War (USA)

18 May, 1775: captured from Great Britain at St. Johns, Quebec by Col. B. Arnold. Armed for use on Lake Champlain, renamed Enterprise.

28 August 1775: with other vessels, embarked 1000 troops for capture of St Johns, Montreal, and Quebec.

11-13 October 1776: Battle of Valcour Island (near Plattsburg, NY) Tactical defeat for Americans, though strategic victory. British invasion disrupted. Enterprise was one of only five ships to escape.

7 July 1777: Run aground and burned on Lake Champlain, to prevent capture.

 

2) 1776-1777 (USA)

Successful privateer, purchased 20 December 1776 by Continental Navy. Little information on this ship survives. Operated in Chesapeake Bay. Returned to Maryland Council of Safety February 1777.

3) 1799-1823 Schooner (USA)

Known as "Lucky little Enterprise". I have to believe that this is the ship they meant to portray in "Generations". 1800: Quasi-war with France. Captured 8 privateers, recovered 11 captured American ships. One of only 14 ships retained after the war.

26 June 1801: Entered Mediterranean Sea

1 August 1801: Defeated Tripolitan corsair Tripoli.

17 January 1803: Captures Tunisian ship Paulina.

22 May 1803: Ran 30 ton Tripolitan ship aground.

June 1803: Coastal bombardment missions

23 December 1803: With USS Constitution, captured Tripolitan ketch Mastico. This ketch was used on Decatur's mission to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia.

Winter 1804-1805: Rebuilt at Venice

15 August 1806: Attacked by Spanish gunboats. Gunboats were driven off.

Late 1807: Returned to USA

1810-1811: out of commission, under repair at Washington Navy Yard

April 1811: Recommissioned

2 October 1811 - 20 May 1812: Refitted with brig rigging at Washington Navy Yard

5 September 1813: Captured British brig Boxer near Portland, Maine. (Repairs at Portland) Sailed to Carribean with USS Rattlesnake. Captured 3 ships.

25 February 1814: Separated from Rattlesnake by a more powerful opponent. Enterprise was forced to jettison her armament in order to escape.

9 March 1814: Reached Wilmington, NC

July-November 1815: Final Mediterranean tour.

November 1817: Sailed for Carribean & Gulf of Mexico to combat pirates, smugglers, and slavers. Captured 13 ships on this duty

9 July 1823: Ran aground and broke up on Little Curacao island in the West Indies. No losses to the crew.

4) 1831-1844 Schooner (USA)

No combat record. After two years of patrols near Brazil, (1832-1834) she sailed around the world from New York, by way of Brazil, Africa, India, the Far East, the East Indies, Honolulu HI, Mazatlan Mexico, Cape Horn, Rio de Janeiro, and then to Philadelphia.

12 July 1839: decommissioned.

16 March 1840: Re-commissioned.

1840-1844: Patrols off South America.

24 June 1844: decommissioned.

28 October 1844: Sold.

5) 1864-1899? Sloop of War (UK) (variant of Research class)

The first composite ironclad. (wooden construction with iron armor) While some have classified this ship as a "lightweight battleship", I tend to think of her as a modified sloop-of-war. She was MUCH smaller than contemporary battleships. I have little information on her record.

6) 1877-1909 Sloop of War (USA)

This ship's record in some ways resembles that of NCC-1701..... No combat record. After fitting out at Norfolk VA, surveyed the mouth of the Mississippi River. Returned to Norfolk April 1878. Left 27 May to survey Amazon and Madeira rivers. Returned to New York. Left for Europe December 1878. Visited many northern European and Mediterranean ports.

9 May 1880: Returned to Washington Navy Yard for repairs. Decommissioned.

12 January 1882: Recommissioned

1 January 1883: Began 3 year worldwide hydrographic survey mission. Contributed materially to the knowledge of the oceans, their currents, and their bottoms.

21 March 1886: De-commissioned at New York.

4 October 1887: Re-commissioned

20 May 1890: De-commissioned at New York.

September 1891 - September 1892: Training ship at US Naval Academy, Annapolis MD

17 October 1892: Loaned to Commonwealth of Massachusetts as maritime school ship.

4 May 1909: Returned to the U. S. Navy

1 October 1909: sold

7) 1914? - 1918? Motorboat No. 790 (USA)

Served in non-commissioned status in the 2nd naval district.

8) 1919 - 1946 Light Cruiser (UK) ("E" class, sister ship: HMS Emerald)

Served in World War II. Exact record unknown, but probably unspectacular, considering her obscurity and her obsolescence. A wartime proposal to convert her into an aircraft carrier was rejected.

24 April 1940: Bombarded German positions near Narvik, Norway

Scrapped shortly after the war.

9) 1938-1958 Aircraft Carrier CV-6 (USA) (Yorktown class)

Arguably the most successful warship in history, I feel certain that this is the ship for which NCC-1701 is named. 1939: Pacific

1941: Operations from Pearl Harbor. First American carrier to return to Pearl Harbor after Japanese attack.

10 December 1941: Sank submarine I-170

11 January 1942: Samoa convoy

1 February 1942: Marshall Islands. Raided Japanese bases at Kwajelein, Wotje, and Maloelap

8-25 April 1942: Escorted USS Hornet for Doolittle's Tokyo Raid

4-6 June 1942 Battle of Midway: Aircraft from Enterprise at least partially responsible for three Japanese carriers (Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu) sunk. Also sank damaged heavy cruiser Mikuma.

NOTE: Contrary to Okuda's entry for the Repulse in "The Star Trek Encyclopedia", HMS Repulse was *NOT* involved in this action. HMS Repulse was sunk December 10, 1941 by Japanese torpedo bombers near Singapore.

24 August 1942: Sank light carrier Ryujo(?) (other sources credit Saratoga)

26 October 1942: Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. Enterprise hit by two bombs, but kept fighting.

30 October-11 November 1942: Partial repairs at Noumea, New Caledonia

13 November 1942: Severly damaged battlecruiser Hiei.

14 November 1942: Sank heavy cruiser Kinugasa

16 November-4 December 1942: Repairs completed at Noumea.

27 May 1943: Awarded Presidential Unit Citation

20 July 1943 - November 1943 : Refitted at Puget Sound

29 January-3 February 1944: Supported landings on Kwajelein. First radar controlled night bombing mission launched from a carrier.

6 June 1944: First Battle of the Phillipine Sea, AKA The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot

24-26 October 1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf. Partially responsible for sinking carrier Zuikaku and light carrier Zuiho.

7 April 1945: One of six carriers which sank the battleship Yamato.

11 April 1945: Slightly damaged by kamikaze

14 May, 1945: Seriously damaged by kamikaze.

7 June-13 September 1945: Repairs at Puget Sound

1 November 1945-18 January 1946: Operation Magic Carpet. Returned over 10,000 veterans to USA.

17 February 1947: Decommissioned

1949: Plan by New York State to convert ship into a museum is suspended.

January 1957: Stricken from the Navy List.

1957-8: Plan by Enterprise Association to preserve the ship fails.

1 July 1958: Sold

1958: Scrapped at Kearny, NJ

10) 1959-1985 Auxiliary ship A 71 (UK) ('E' class)

No armament, Type 1006 radar and echo sounders. The class was paid off in January 1985.

11) 1961-present Aircraft Carrier CVAN-65 (USA) (Enterprise class, unique)

1961: Atlantic Ocean

June 1962: East Coast, Mediterranean

October 1962: Blockade of Cuba

May 1963: (some say Nov-Dec 1963, can't prove it) with cruiser Long Beach (CGN-9) and "destroyer leader" Bainbridge (DLGN-25, later CGN-25) formed "all nuclear" task force in the Mediterranean, began a round-the-world cruise, "Operation Sea Orbit", covering 30,500 miles.

October 1964: First refueling

January 1969: Major flight deck explosion due to ordinance accident with a Zuni rocket. Launch and recovery operations resumed within hours.

May 1969: Re-commissioned

August 1969: Second refuelling during long period in dock.

January 1971: Recommissioned

1973: Final air attacks in Viet-Nam war. Docked for modifications to facilitate F-14A and S-3A aircraft.

April 1975: Evacuation of Saigon

1 July 1975: Redesignated CVN-65

1979-1982: Major modernization at Puget Sound. (Bremerton, Washington) Distinctive SPS-32 and SPS-33 radars removed. SPS-48 and SPS-49 added. Three Vulcan-Phalanx 20mm gatling guns installed, her first gun armament.

September 1982 - December 1984: two deployments in Western Pacific and Indian Ocean.

28 April 1983: Ran aground in San Francisco

1986: Mysterious incident at Alameda: Soviet spy Pavel Chekov captured by ship's marines near one of the reactors. Although Chekov was injured in an escape attempt, he later managed to escape from the hospital, probably with KGB assistance. The Soviet Union denied any knowledge of any Pavel Chekov, or of any KGB/GRU operations aboard the Enterprise

January-August 1987: Deployment in Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, through Suez Canal, returned to West Coast via South Africa,

1985? Ran aground in San Francisco

1994? Ship refueled

12) 1976-present Space Shuttle OV-101 (USA) (Enterprise class)

Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle Orbiter, was originally to be named Constitution (in honor of the U.S. Constitution's Bicentennial). However, viewers of the popular TV Science Fiction show Star Trek started a write-in campaign urging the White House to rename the vehicle Enterprise. While OV-101 never made it into space, she was a valuable testbed for the space shuttle program.

17 September 1976: Rolled out at Palmdale, CA. Roddenberry et. al. were present.

31 January 1977: Transported overland to Edwards Air Force Base/Dryden Flight Research Facility

15 February 1977: Three taxi tests aboard a 747, maximum speed: 157 MPH

18 February 1977: First flight aboard 747.

12 August 1977: First free flight. Enterprise was dropped from the 747.

26 October 1977: Last free flight.

13 March 1978: Ferried to Marshall Space Flight Center, where she was mated to external tank and solid rocket boosters for vibration tests.

10 April 1979: Ferried to Kennedy Space Center for test fit with SRB and fuel tank.

16 August 1979: Returned to Dryden Flight Research Facility.

30 October 1979: Returned overland to Rockwell International's Palmdale facility.

6 September 1981: Returned to Dryden Flight Research Facility.

May-June 1983: Paris Air Show, later to Germany, Italy, England & Canada.

April-October 1984: Vandenberg AFB, later to Mobile Alabama, later to 1984 World's Fair, New Orleans, Louisiana.

20 November 1985: Ferried to Dulles Airport, near Washington, DC, where she still remains. Ownership transferred to Smithsonian Institution.

 

13) 1981-present Patrol Craft P02 (Barbados) (Enterprise class)

75 ft shrimp boats converted for patrol duties by Swan Hunter (Trinidad) in 1980-81. In service with the naval arm of the Barbados Defence Forces.

14) 2245-2285 Starship (heavy cruiser) NCC-1701 (UFP) Constitution Class

15) 2286 - 2293? Starship (heavy cruiser) NCC-1701A (UFP) Constitution? Class

16) 2293 - 23xx Starship (heavy cruiser) NCC-1701B (UFP) Excelsior Class

17) 23xx - 2344 Starship (heavy cruiser) NCC-1701C (UFP) Ambassador Class

18) 2363-2371 Starship (heavy cruiser) NCC-1701D (UFP) Galaxy Class

note: Since the Enterprise seen in the final TNG episode "All Good Things" was explicitly NCC-1701D, and was also in an alternate time line, (an unlikely alternate, given the events in Generations) I have chosen not to give any specifications for it.

19) Other Enterprises:

There have been numerous yachts named Enterprise, including some which have been in America's Cup races. I have chosen to limit the scope of this FAQ to commissioned ships, and those mentioned in Star Trek, and these do not qualify.

There was supposedly a Malaysian supply ship named Enterprise in the late '80s. I'm looking for data on her. She may or may not qualify as a commissioned ship.

There is also currently a schooner named Enterprise, built 1947. Again, I'm trying to get more information.

There was a picture of an earlier space ship named Enterprise in Star Trek: TMP. There was no information about this ship in the movie, but there the Star Trek Space Flight Chronology by Stan & Fred Goldstein (Pocket Books, 1980) list what is apparently this same ship, as a Declaration class, 2123-2165 AD, While this ships connection to "canon" is tenuous at best, the statistics are reproduced here:

"This original Enterprise was the first stellar spaceliner built specifically for the major Federation space lanes (such as Earth - Alpha Centauri). The travel demand that blossomed in the 22nd century resulted in 957 of these Declaration class ships being commissioned."

SOURCES:

Special Thanks to Jennifer Sarantites and Joe Creighton for getting the information from the NASA web site for me. Thanks also to "The Chanteur," for information on the 1959-1985 HMS Enterprise and the current HMBS Enterprise. Thanks also to Carson Malone, for his help in locating information on the 22nd Century Enterprise. Thanks also to fomer CVN-65 crew member Tommy Mason, for information on the 1983 grounding.

Notes on "Canonicity" of Sources:

Strictly speaking, none of my sources are canon, however some are better than others. My historical sources on 20th century and earlier Enterprises are quite reliable. Parkes and Friedman are considered authoritative, and I also hold Terzibaschitsch in high regard for what he does. He does not go into great detail on the origin of the design, but he provides superb information on the exact fitting of the ship at different times, well organized comparison tables, plus some career information. I have also found Jentschura, Jung & Mickel to be reliable, and they provided much useful information on Japanese ships sunk by CV-6.

I regard "The Making of Star Trek" and "The Star Trek Encyclopedia" as nearly canon, since they were written by the producers. Some statistics on Enterprise B, C, and D had to be taken from drawings in the Encyclopedia, so other than length, my numbers may be suspect on these ships. The "Star Fleet Technical Manual" by Franz Joseph was mostly well researched, (there are some errors) and was once considered nearly canon, but it has been contradicted many times since its publication almost 20 years ago. Alas, data in this book must now be regarded as suspect. "Ships of the Star Fleet" is sort of a late 23rd century version of "Jane's Fighting Ships", or perhaps "Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet". While it is quite interesting, and quite well produced, much of the information has no support in canon, and some of it has been contradicted in canon sources since its publication in 1987. I used this only for a few details on NCC-1701 and NCC-1701A. The drawings are marvelous, though.

Notes on Distribution and re-use of this information:

Feel free to copy and distribute this, as long as you don't try to make any money off of it. All I ask is that you give me appropriate credit for compiling this list.

David R. Wells